TV Guide review
Peeping Tom (1960)
Disturbing, perverse, sadistic, voyeuristic, intensely personal, and truly
brilliant, this unqualified masterpiece should be seen by everyone who has
an interest in film. Mark Lewis (Karl Boehm), a focus-puller at a film studio,
works part-time at a corner cigar store taking pornographic photos of women.
One night, he approaches a prostitute on the street, goes to her apartment,
and stabs her with the sharpened leg of the tripod of the 16mm camera he
uses to record the whole affair. The next morning, he films the police investigation
of her murder. Mark rents out most of the house he owns, and Helen Stephens
(Anna Massey), a young woman who lives there with her blind mother (Maxine
Audley), takes a liking to Mark, and the two become friendly. When he lets
Helen watch home movies of him as a young boy, she is horrified to see that
the films show his father (played by director Michael Powell) scientifically
torturing the boy--part of the psychologist's studies in fear, Mark explains.
(One reel captures the young Mark being awakened by the lizard his father
has thrown on his bed.) It is not long, however, before Mark kills again.
This time his victim is Vivian (Moira Shearer), a dancer-actress working
at his film studio. He promises her a screen test, but as the camera rolls,
he places the pointy tripod at her throat, and as she watches her reflection
in a mirror connected to the camera, she is killed. Increasingly attracted
to Helen, Mark tries to repress his cinematic obsession by leaving his camera
at home when they go out, but his perverted impulses begin to get the best
of him, especially after Helen's mother confronts him. Powell, one of the
cornerstones of the British film industry during the 1940s, was vilified
by the British press following the release of this picture. The director
of Stairway to Heaven (1946) (aka A Matter of Life and Death);
Black Narcissus (1947); and The Red Shoes (1948) had made
a rich and provocative psychological horror film, but critics in his homeland
found it completely repugnant. The film was quickly recut (butchered is
more accurate) by the studio and was shown briefly in US second-run houses.
It wasn't until 1979, however, that a restored version was released due
to the efforts of director Martin Scorsese, a devout fan of the picture.
Powell's career never recovered from the critical attacks, and he made only
a handful of features and shorts after Peeping Tom. With its incredibly
complex structure -- which continually accuses the audience of sharing Mark's
sickness -- Peeping Tom is a remarkable examination of the overwhelming
power of cinema, and one of the most disturbing films ever made.
